Last weekend's SG Petch Tour of Hamsterley saw two local crews head North, in search of more West Wales Rally Spares RAC championship points. This year's event had attracted a very high quality entry of over a 100 cars, for 44 miles of fast and furious action mainly in Hamsterley forest but with the addition this year of a new three mile test in the nearby Raby Castle which was to be used three times during the day. Overnight rain had left the notoriously difficult roads of Hamsterley with its narrow roads lined by firebreaks and deceptive crests, extremely slippery. Graham Waite with Gill Cotton alongside were looking to continue their good early season form in the Volvo Amazon, and built an early Category one lead by first service. The next two tests were in the new Raby Castle stage, with its mixture of narrow roads in the wooded areas of the estate roads, it was here that Waite had his only real drama of the day, with a huge moment as he had a massive 100 yard sideways slid on a grass verge between high walls and trees, but he soon gathered it up and continued unabated. He continued to increase his lead as the day wore on finally finishing 26th overall, first in category one, and winning class B4. Simon Pickering with Colin Jenkins on the notes in the Dave Jenkins Motorsport prepared pinto engined Escort, started steadily over the first three tests in Hamsterley, but on the second run through the Raby Castle test they slid off and lost over two minutes regaining the road, this time the loss dropped them well down the leaderboard. On stage six they broke a brand new rear shock absorber as the stages started to get rough, and rounded off the day with a spin over the finish line of the last stage, despite this they finished 33rd overall, 3rd in class C3 and more championship points. The historic event was won by the Escort RS1800 of Matt Edwards/ Kim Baker ahead of the similar cars of Nick Elliott and Jason Pritchard. The WWRS RAC series returns to the fast flowing roads of Crychan and Halfway for the next round with the Severn Valley Stages on May 31st. This weekend it's the turn of the Mintex British Historic championship to take centre stage with the Pirelli Historic Cup, with 50 miles of the notorious Keilder forest lying in wait. With Simon Tysoe and Cliff Simmons looking to build on their impressive start to the season in the Escort RS1800. On the two-day Pirelli National rally the experienced Paul Morris will be calling the notes for Pete Smith in the Swift Leisure backed Metro 6R4.